Brian (1s):
Hello, and welcome to the Get Lean and Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian grn. I'm a certified health coach, trainer and author, and this podcast is for middle-aged men and women looking to optimize their health and get their bodies back to what it once was 10 to 15 years ago. I will give you simple, actionable items to get long-term sustainable results. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show. All right, welcome to the Get Lean e Klean podcast. My name is Brian Grin. I hope you had a great weekend and happy Tuesday. If you're listening to this on Tuesday. Hopefully you listen to my rebroadcast of my interview with Dr.
Brian (43s):
Don Layman. Really enjoyed my interview so much that I wanted to put it out there again, and I think it's important with all any podcast you're listening to, if you, if there's some episodes that you know, you find interesting to listen to them over again because you can really grab information that you don't get the first time around. And I, I found that with this, with this interview, so I wanted to send it back out. Obviously we talked all about protein and the importance of it. The, you know, how getting the correct amino acids is important, what that first meal of day should be, how to build muscle with protein, and, you know, trying to get the sweet spot for the right amount of protein per meal.
Brian (1m 24s):
So we really touched on all the details regarding protein and I, I definitely recommend listening to this one if you haven't already. And this one's episode two 50. My Rebroadcast with Dr. Don Layman. So there you go. Today on the micro podcast, thought I'd changed it up a little bit, haven't talked too much about my routine, some of the habits that I've implementing into my life and, you know, again, it might work for some people, might work for others, might not work for others, but I think it's, you know, I thought it maybe it'd be beneficial if you, if I just talk through some of the things that I've implemented and hopefully maybe these are things that you'll wanna add into your life. One of the big things that I did add into my routine, and I've talked about this in the past, and this was spurred on by my buddy Brad Kearns and also Dr.
Brian (2m 13s):
Don Layman, who talked about the importance of that first meal. I've actually added in that first meal. I would, was eliminated it for a long time, but I've been, you know, adding in a third meal for a while. I did their two meals a day. I think there's nothing wrong with that. And there are days where I do do two meals a day, but I would say on average, I'm, I'm implementing some type of morning, you know, like fruit protein. I usually do like a Greek yogurt with blueberries and maybe oranges or things like that. Maybe some cottage cheese. So getting in some, you know, some healthy fats, some protein, and obviously blueberries are one of those fruits that keep coming up as probably one of the most beneficial fruits you can have.
Brian (3m 2s):
You'll hear Dr. James d Nicola talk about it a lot regarding having, you know, it's been linked to better cognition, lowering blood pressure, less inflammation, improving gut health, stronger bones, healthier skin, improved hydration. So yeah, I just think it's one of those fruits. I find that, you know, when when we go to the market to try to get 'em, I feel like it's always sold out. So try to get, you know, locally sourced and organic blueberries and I've been adding that into my morning routine. I really enjoy it. So that's sort of like my, I almost like a pre-workout, you know, smallish meal. I'd say it's, I've added about probably five to 600 calories.
Brian (3m 45s):
I found that for one, adding that third meal in was one way just to get in some more protein and some more calories in general, I felt like for, for myself as 180 pounds, you know, I was undereating for a long time and especially how active I was. So, you know, I always talk about it, you know, sort of track your protein. I talked about it with Dr. Don Leman, track your protein, track your calories, see where you're at. And I mean, obviously there's not a perfect like calorie amount, but you seem to sort of get a feel for it. I mean, if you're under 2000 calories or so as a, you know, a male, a hundred seventy five eighty pounds, that's, that's probably undereating for the most part.
Brian (4m 28s):
And I was at doing that for, for, for quite a while with, with just two meals a day. So either way, if it might be for you, it might not be, you might wanna, you know, not have that first meal. I I usually wait a few hours anyways. I always ha come up with this key that I've done for a long time is it's like a bumper to bumper approach where y you're not eating right away when you get up, but you're also not eating too close to bed. I think that's a good rule of thumb. Maybe give yourself two to three hours on each end, let's just say three hours. So if you're getting up at, you know, six o'clock, six 30, maybe that first meal's at nine ish and same thing when you're going to bed. Maybe you go to bed at 10 o'clock, 10 30, you're that you're done eating around 7, 7 30.
Brian (5m 12s):
I think that's a good rule to start from. If you've never done anything like that or any done any done, ever done any fasting, that would be a good place to start. Some other habits I've added in, I mean I've always gone for walks, walks since I've had a dog for the last five years have been actually longer than that, probably seven years. So morning walks getting scun sunlight on your face. I interviewed Carrie Bennett and we talked all about the importance of just getting sunlight on your face in the morning for, you know, getting circadian rhythm going, helps with mood energy. So just getting out there even if the sun's not out and the, the temperature's not even that great, you know, you can always bundle up and get out there whether you have a dog or not.
Brian (5m 58s):
So, you know, walking for at least 30 minutes a day, I'd say would be a good rule of thumb, hydrating with water and salt doing this, you could do this in the morning, you could do this pre-workout. I've actually, what I've been doing is adding salt with before my workouts and I find that my performance has has improved. So if you're, especially if you're someone that sweats a lot, you know, hydration is more than just drinking water, right? You want to add in those electrolytes and you know, you're, you'll hear this a lot in the health industry and there's a lot of companies that have come up about it. You don't need to go spend, I mean, if you want lmt, which is Rob Wolf's company, you can get a little bit of a bonus if you wanna check in the show notes.
Brian (6m 48s):
And I, I can give you a little bit of a bonus to start out and try those element T packets, but you don't need to be spending that much on salt, really. You could just use normal, like a Redmond sea salt, a quality sea salt, not a, just a table salt that you find at the restaurants. So yeah, hydrating with water and salt really been good. I actually add a little caffeine, some coffee a little bit before workouts and with, with the, with their chocolate salt, I really enjoy that. Put some ice in there, shake it up. So that's been something I've implemented. Eating protein with every meal, obviously prioritizing protein. We, I just had a whole episode, so with Dr. Don Lehman, so we talked all about that, especially for that first meal a day, get that protein in and strain training, obviously something that's always been a part of my life, but at least three times a day I would say is a good habit to get into.
Brian (7m 39s):
I did three times a week for the longest time, now I've just added one extra day. So I do four days a week and I've just changed my splits so I could get in lower body work twice a week as opposed to just once a week, which what I was doing. I think volume wise, if you can get in, you know, let's just say two, two lower, two upper body workouts, I think that's a good place to start if you've never done that, as opposed to just doing a lower body workout and then waiting a whole week to do another one. So that's what I, I've implemented into my life and, but I would say at the minimum, if you could just do three strength training days a week, just you could do total body and, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or you know, Monday, Wednesday, Saturday or whatever it is, make sure you're giving yourself some rest.
Brian (8m 26s):
At least 24 to 48 hours. I would say 48 hours would be a good place to start. As far as rest, sleep, you know, obviously I shoot for, you know, my sweet spot for sleep and everyone's a little bit different with this. I usually in go to bed around 10, 10 30 and at least around six 30 ish. So, you know, that's, you know, seven to eight hours of sleep works well for me. I think for the most part as an adult, someone that's probably 30 years and older, 25 years and older, you know, I think if you, you could shoot for seven to nine hours in that, in that sort of sweet spot would be a good place to go.
Brian (9m 9s):
And some of the things I've been doing to, to help with sleep is me a little bit of meditation. I, we've done that on and off. I do meditation sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening, and literally it's like 10 minutes long, so I'm not sitting there for an hour. I had DJ Treyhan on the PJ tour golfer and he's become very spiritual and does a 45 minute meditation in the mornings. So I'm not saying you have to do that, but it, there's not a perfect time to do it either. So again, I think if you're having trouble with sleep, I think this could be something to do at least a coup an hour or two before you go to bed sort of just helps turn the brain off and just gets you into that rested state and sort of splits up what you've been doing for the day as to, you know, now I'm going to sleep, I'm gonna slow the brain down and you know, just sort of get into my own little zone here and, and try to quiet the mind.
Brian (10m 3s):
So anyways, you wanna get rid of any chaos that went on during the day. I think helping with sleep is, is some type of meditation practice would, would go a long way. Another thing we've been doing it, my wife and I probably, well we've been doing it since Covid for sure, but even before that, not as much maybe, but that's cooking your own food. And I've said this before, I think this is probably the biggest health hack anyone can do. You know, you're, you're avoiding, you're avoiding these restaurant foods, which, which are, you know, using these seed oils to cook in. And that's the thing, when you can control what goes in your food, that is gonna be a telltale sign to optimal health.
Brian (10m 46s):
And so I think the more that you can cook for yourself, if it's 80% of the time, I think that's can go, can go a long way. So that's been another routine that my wife and I have implemented and we do it, I would say at least six, six nights out of the week. So yeah, you want, you wanna avoid vegetables, you wanna avoid a lot of the processed foods that come with, with restaurant foods or fast foods and, and the best way to do that is to cook for yourself. So I think those are the main things. You know, morning sunlight, walking every day, hydrating with salt and water, you know, lifting weights.
Brian (11m 27s):
Another thing you could add in if you, if you've never done it, is some type of like high intensity workout from time to time, maybe sprints. I know people, not everyone's meant to do sprints. One of the things that I did add in my basement is a rogue echo bike, which is a, you know, sort of a heavy duty bike that you can do quick sprints with. And there's an individual, and I'm now I'm blanking on his name, but we talked about high intensity repeat training and essentially what you can do is, let's say you can sprint for 10 seconds, take a minute off sprint for 10 seconds, take a minute, 30 off if you need it, do your rest as, as long as you can come back in that ten second sprint.
Brian (12m 15s):
Do it with the same amount of effort as you did the first one. So there's no sort of, a lot of times what happens when people do high intensity workouts is by the time they get to the third, the fourth or the fifth sprint, whatever sprint they're doing, this could be in the pool, this could be on the bike, this could be, you know, obviously it could be sprinting outside, which I imagine most people don't do, but Brad Kearns does it a lot. He, he, I think he goes to a track and does it, but whatever you're, you can use a row machine, whatever you're using, you know, you do that quick sprint for let's just say 10 to 15 seconds and then give yourself enough time to feel like you're almost re not almost, but fully recovered to do that next set just as, just as fast and having the same amount of effort.
Brian (13m 2s):
I think that's what happens sometimes in these big classes. I mean, there's a ton of classes in the, in the gym that I belong to Midtown and I'd imagine a lot of these high intensity classes, the individuals are not getting enough rest in between sets and it's sort of killing their performance. So something to keep in mind if you're gonna do that on your own. So to repeat everything that I've talked about, but that, that would be sort of one of the things you could add in maybe once a week. And then ha you have like, you know, three strength training sessions as well. So morning sunlight, walking every day, cooking your food strength training at least three times a week, prioritizing protein with every meal, hydrating with salt and water, shooting the sleep between seven and nine hours a night.
Brian (13m 58s):
Those are some ideal lifestyle, you know, changes or maybe these are things that you're doing already. Again, it's not about being perfect. Maybe take one thing at a time. If, if this, if, if you've never done, you know, a lot of walks, you know, start with that. Just start walking, you know, in the morning, get up. Maybe if you have to get up slightly early, get up a little bit earlier, go for a 20, 30 minute walk. I think that'll be a good place to start. And then, you know, from there you can add in some of these other pillars. So hope this helps. These are just some habits that I've been implementing. Some of them I've had for a while. Some of them I've sort of added in like the rogue echo bike with the high intensity workouts every so often.
Brian (14m 41s):
And yeah, cook most of your food. That's a big one. So if you have any questions, let me know. Hopefully this helps. And if you've never done any type of spirituality or meditation, give it a try. There's so many great apps and I think this will help, especially if sleep is, is is something that you're having an issue with, you could do it before you go to sleep and you'll find it will definitely be beneficial and helpful. Takes time. You gotta be patient. You could start with five minutes and then slowly implement up. And you know, for right now, I, I pretty much, you know, I averaged like 10 minutes so it's nothing crazy, nothing that long, but, and just focus on your breath.
Brian (15m 21s):
So anyways, just wanted to throw that out there. Let me know if you have any questions. Email me brian brian gr.com and yeah, have a great rest of the week. I look forward to talking with you on Friday with another great interview. Thanks for listening to the Get Lean EAN podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine and I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode. Feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member that's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again and have a great day.
